Chianello: Local politics, from barbecues to buttons

For a slick political campaign, the button wasn’t exactly high in production values — black pen on white paper — but the message couldn’t be clearer: “vote!! for lisa macleod NOW.”

“I’m making these with my friends and we’re selling them for $1 and the money goes to Ronald McDonald House,” said nine-year-old Victoria, daughter of Nepean-Carleton PC candidate (and incumbent) Lisa MacLeod.

Who could resist?

It was an undeniably charming scene at the MacLeod HQ, even though a couple hundred supporters were jammed into the Barrhaven mall space for the official launch of her campaign Saturday morning, making for a rather steamy but party-like atmosphere nevertheless.

Another campaign launch going on simultaneously in different part of town had exactly the same upbeat attitude, same swelteringly packed room, same energetic atmosphere.

It was just a different political party.

This was Ottawa Centre’s Yasir Naqvi officially kicking off his campaign Saturday morning — as many as 10 local campaigns launched Friday and Saturday — with hundreds in attendance. But not for long. Within half an hour of the start of the meeting, teams of Naqvi canvassers were dispatched into the community to spread the Liberal message.

Do cute buttons for kids, free barbecues and rah-rah rallies seems frivolous when set against the heavy fuel of campaigns—the platforms, the policy, and leader-driven events that sell them? Maybe. But these people are giving up their free time, the first beautiful Saturday of the season, for partisan convictions. They don’t need to be sold on policy— they know their sides already.

That’s why launch speeches are a few minutes long at most. Sure, there are a necessary platitudes about making Ontario more affordable for families, or getting the province back to work, and the requisite shots at the opponent. Yet this wasn’t the moment for hard thinking. This is the time for political fun.

The election writ large must be about issues, but local campaigns need to be personally uplifting. The minute they stop delivering that, the candidate is doomed. Keep the troops motivated. Build momentum.

If there’s no momentum, at least keep the dream alive that the volunteers are fighting the good fight. At Ottawa Centre’s NDP headquarters, they were joshing around about the fact that theirs is the only campaign office with a vault—it used to be a bank. Bad puns abounded — “secure Ontario’s future,” for example — to good-humoured groans.
Now, these folks are politically savvy. They know their candidate Jennifer McKenzie has little hope of winning on June 12. No matter. A local campaign is still about talking to as many people as possible.

And when you’re starting from behind, that imperative to find the maximum number of real hands to shake, of real people in the eye, makes every hour of campaigning precious. So Ottawa South PC candidate Matt Young is thrilled that this campaign is week longer than most. He got his foot in the door in last summer’s byelection, where he lost by 1,200 votes to Liberal John Fraser. Now, Young is trying to close the gap in that historically Liberal riding — former premier Dalton McGuinty’s — and he’s convinced the personal touch is his only path to victory.

Of course, a party’s platform — and especially its leader — can make or break almost any local candidate. This may be the case in Ottawa West-Nepean where about 1,000 votes separated Liberal incumbent Bob Chiarelli and PC candidate Randall Denley in 2011. Chiarelli’s been a politician in this town forever, while Denley used to write this column, so both candidates are well known. What will make the difference? Policies? Leaders? Ground games?

Obviously a mix of all three, but local candidates only control that third factor. Speaking at Denley’s launch, MacLeod told the crowd that Ottawa West-Nepean is one of the ridings the Conservatives have to take if they want to form the government. And it was up to the people in the room — who numbered far fewer than Chiarelli’s supporters — to make it happen.

In a close race, then, keeping up an intense enthusiasm isn’t a side issue. It’s a central concern. It would be ridiculous to suggest that the team with the best do-it-yourself buttons will prevail. But it can’t hurt.

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